So badly injured as he struggled to save a comrade his wife was told he died in battle: Now Boer War hero's Victoria Cross expected to fetch £140,000 at auction

The Victoria Cross awarded to a war hero who risked his life to save a comrade is tipped to sell at auction for an impressive £140,000 - but the tale of valour behind the medal is priceless.

In fact, Sergeant William Traynor was so badly hurt during the rescue for which he was awarded the honour that the War Office mistakenly told his wife that he had died in battle.

It was after 3 o'clock in the morning on February 6, 1901, when 2,000 enemy Boer soldiers launched a surprise attack on the British camp at Bothwell in South Africa.

Reward for valour: Sgt William Traynor's Victoria Cross is being sold for an estimated £140,000 on December 13 this year and right, Sgt Traynor wearing his honour after he received it in 1901

Sheer horror: An artist's impression of the Boer war - horses were set free and men killed in their beds as the Boers launched a 3am ambush

They set horses loose to run wild
through the camp and disorientate the British, fooling the troops into
thinking they were under attack from the cavalry.

Many were killed in their beds before they had even dressed to respond to the attack. Twenty-four officers were killed and 53 were badly wounded.

But not so Sergeant Traynor. The soldier, of the 2nd battalion West Yorkshire regiment, threw himself out of his trench and into the battle. And when he saw a wounded comrade stranded on the battlefield, he rushed to his aid under heavy enemy fire.

He was shot in the leg and chest but carried on - and with the help of a fellow soldier, Lance-Corporal Lintott, he managed to drag the wounded man to safety.

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Sgt Traynor's valiant actions were true to Arthur Conan Doyle's description of the regiment in his history of the Boer war - 'The West Yorkshires were no more flurried at three in the morning than at three in the afternoon.'

But the injuries he suffered in the daring rescue were so extensive that military doctors expected him to die. Officials prematurely sent his wife a telegram informing her that her husband had been killed in action.

Happily, they were wrong, and Sgt Traynor went on to recover and reunite with his wife. But his army career was over - his injuries were such that they led to him being discharged from the army.

David Erskine-Hill, from auctioneers Dix
Noonan and Webb, said: 'As is oft forgotten, the Victoria Cross is as
much issued for saving life as it is for taking it.

Respect: He couldn't collect his Victoria Cross from King Edward VII, but Sergeant William Traynor had the chance to meet Winston Churchill - who also fought in the Boer conflict - at Sevenoaks in 1945

Decorated for bravery: Sergeant William Traynor was awarded the Viictoria Cross (first left) after he left the safety of the trenches under heavy enemy fire and dashed across a battlefield to help a wounded man

'And the gallantry displayed by William Traynor at Bothwell was a classic example of the former.

'He rescued a wounded comrade under a murderous fire at night, himself taking hits in the chest and a thigh.

'His case has all the drama one might expect of a VC action.'

Sgt Traynor was awarded the Victoria Cross - the highest military decoration for courage and valour on the battlefield and one of only 1,351 awarded in the 156 years that have passed since 1856 - after the war, but was unable to travel to Buckingham Palace to receive the medal from King Edward VII.

He was instead given it at York by Colonel Edward Browne, also a VC winner from the Boer War.

His medal group, including the Victoria Cross, has
now been put up for auction in London by Sgt Traynor’s grandson with a
pre-sale estimate of £140,000.

His grandson has chosen to sell the medal after 111 years of it being passed down through the family so that he can share
the inheritance among his own children as cash rather than an heirloom.

The auction takes place on December 13.

Victoria Crosses are so highly valued that they rarely come on to the market. When they do they are often snapped by Lord Ashcroft, the Conservative peer.

His collection is estimated to have cost £30million and includes one tenth of all the VCs awarded since 1856. It is on display at the Imperial War Museum.

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Boer war hero William Traynor's Victoria Cross expected to fetch £140,000 at auction